Last night, my wife and I decided to see States of Grace again. Our teenaged son hadn't seen it, and so we went to Movies 8 in Provo.

For those of you who don't know Provo, Movies 8 is a second-run theater, where they show movies on re-release for a dollar. It's something of a Provo institution. The prints they show aren't always top quality, the sound sometimes leaves something to be desired, and audiences--well, more on audiences later. But it's a cheap date. I find that it's perfect for big dumb Hollywood action films, which aren't probably worth full-price admission, but which benefit from being seen on a big screen.

One thing that's interesting about Movies 8 is that it's a great barometer of the popularity of a film. I sawThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy there, for example, when it felt like it had only been in first-run houses two weeks before. When a movie is at Movies 8 very shortly after running in mainstream houses, then you know the movie tanked.

Well, it's not even April yet and here's States of Grace already. Not a good sign.

Second, it's really interesting to see which movies they show previews for. I like trailers anyway, because it's fun to see what's coming soon, and it's also fun to see what kinds of movies they're previewing for us. I assume that they show previews based on presumed audience interest; that they think that people who have purchased a ticket to see Movie X are a likely audience for movies Y, Z and Q. (By the same token, I assume that ads on TV are aimed at a presumed target audience; hence ads for Depends or denture adhesive during The Price Is Right, or beer ads during the Super Bowl.)

Well, according to this theory, people who like States of Grace are likely to want to see The Ringer, When a Stranger Calls, and Suits on the Loose. An idiotic and offensive comedy about a guy who pretends to be retarded so he can compete in the Special Olympics, a horror film, and a Halestorm comedy.

In other words, the theater has no idea what to do with States of Grace, or what people who liked it might also want to see. So: shotgun approach.

Speaking of audiences, I can say this without reservation: the Movies 8 audience is the rudest audience in the world. I don't know when the last time was I saw a movie there where I wasn't sitting directly in front of or behind a complete . . . jerk. My wife and I saw King Kong there on Tuesday. Right behind us: a family with a crying infant, and a terrified and shrieking two year old. Neither of whom did they ever take out, to the lobby, ever, despite loudly whispered suggestions from a number of people.

Movies 8 caters to couples loudly and vocally and publically working out their relationship issues. To crying children. To cell phone users. To more crying children. (I have seen small children--two and three year olds-- at Movies 8 to see Jurassic Park, I kid you not.) To people who, when the movie is a comedy, have seen it before, and who insist on telling the people they're there with "oh, this next part is hilarious, watch! Oh, look, now's she gonna kiss his friend. Don't worry, they'll end up together." To people who don't get the plot and have to have the people they're there with explain it to them. (I really heard this dialogue once: "What? What? What do you mean that kid's a robot? You mean, that kid? He's a robot? He's not a kid? Why would they want a robot instead of a kid? Is that why he can stay at the bottom of the pool like that? 'Cause he's a robot?" For an hour and forty five minutes. Can you guess the movie?)

Well, for States of Grace, it was a group of college aged students who thought the movie was hilarious. Who clearly were there to have an MST3K experience with it. Who clearly thought they were going to have a merry time laughing at a pretentious and earnestly sober movie.

I made a bet with myself--when will the movie shut them up? I bet that Rachel Emmers would shut them up--that her long monologue about trying to call her parents every Sunday would sober up this particular crowd. I was right and wrong--they shut up for her monologue, but started up again afterwards. Finally, the suicide attempt got to them, and they were silent again to the end of the movie. It's too good a movie to NOT shut them up, but it took longer than I thought, just because certain types of jerkiness are harder to cure than other kinds.

Movies 8 advertises States of Grace as God's Army 2. And I think that title carries with it certain expectations; in this case, that the film will be risibly earnest and sincere. I think that expectation is widely shared in our culture, and may be why SOG failed.

Richard blames Halestorm. I think he's right. But what's really been damaging to the movement, I think, isn't the fact that Halestorm's films are comedies, or that they're dumb comedies, or that they're farcical or satirical. I think what's damaged the movement are the moments of seriousness in those films. When you see a Spike Lee film, he puts in the opening credits, "A Spike Lee joint." Halestorm uses "A Hunter/Hale fireside." I think that's meant seriously.

Halestorm always has that little messagy moment; in the Home Teachers, it's when they bury the old lady's cat and realize how important Home Teaching really is. But those moments come in the context of films that otherwise are basically farcical and satirical. I don't know that Halestorm films are insincere when they end sentimentally, but I think they have created a certain audience expectation that conflates seriousness with sentimentality. And sentimentality frankly begs to be mocked. And that's why the specific sort of Movies 8 rudeness we were subjected to last night involved mocking the (incorrectly) perceived pretentiousness of a serious film.

My sixteen year old son loved the movie. Loved it. And admitted ruefully that persuading his friends to see it with him will be an uphill struggle.

Eric R. Samuelsen